Above: Azerbaijan's President
Heydar Aliyev (left first row) joined Rector Kamal Abdulla (right)
and the Baku State University Faculty to bestow an Honorary Doctorate
on Russia's President Vladimir Putin (center) in January 2001.

Above: 1. S.M.Mironov (Head
of the Federal Council of Federal Duma of Russian Federation).
Left to right: Arif Rahimzade (First Deputy Speaker of Parliament),
Mironov, Kamal Abdulla (Rector of Baku Slavic University), and
Nikolay Ryabov, Russian Ambassador (at the time) in Baku. May
24, 2002. 2. Georgi Pirvanov, President of Bulgaria, October
7, 2004.Left: Constantinos Stephanopoulos, President
of the Hellenic Republic. June 22, 2004

It's
not every day that Azerbaijan commands a visit from the Heads
of foreign countries. But on occasion when they do, Baku Slavic
University (BSU) is eager to use the opportunity to build educational
and cultural bridges. Since 2001 when Vladimir Putin visited
Heydar Aliyev, BSU has given honorary doctorates to the Presidents
of Bulgaria and Greece.In return, these leaders have helped to
create cultural centers inside the university, refurbish classrooms,
provide computers and valuable books.

In addition to Russian, BSU offers Ukrainian, Polish, Czech,
Bulgarian and Slovak. Greek, though not a Slavic language, is
offered as well. Kamal Abdulla, BSU's rector, views the name
Slavic University as symbolic. "It doesn't prevent us from
teaching Turkic, Japanese, Chinese, Korean or even African languages
in the future. Today, it's not enough to study Slavic languages
and cultures; students should know something about the systems
surrounding their specialties as well."

Honorary Doctorates
from Baku Slavic University (BSU) have been bestowed on the following
heads of State from foreign countries. BSU's Rector is Kamal
Abdulla.